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Immediately following the attacks of 9/11, nearly 100 trained search dogs and their handlers—enlisted from 18 U.S. states—were deployed by FEMA to join the rescue efforts at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Alongside firemen and other teams sorting through the debris, the dogs worked tirelessly around the clock to locate survivors in the rubble—images of which deeply intrigued Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas as the events unfolded in the news media.

One decade later, discovering that only 15 of these dogs were still alive, Dumas succeeded in tracking each of them down, visiting and photographing the dogs at their homes throughout the U.S., where they all still live with their handlers. Composed at close range in natural light, Dumas’ powerful portraits—reproduced here in a thoughtfully designed paperback volume with Japanese binding—offer an intimate view into the everyday lives of these highly specialized working animals, now sharing the vulnerability of old age as they once pursued a common heroic goal.